


something's different today

by starcrescent



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Car Accidents, M/M, changbin's mom is the real mvp, changjin is precious i love them, hyunjin is actually one of the greatest humans alive, long live this ship, pretty graphic depictions of a car crash (nobody is hurt), this isn't up for debate, wow this is just a really long oneshot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-24 20:06:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16646882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starcrescent/pseuds/starcrescent
Summary: one second, changbin knows what's going in his life. he knows what's real, what's not―he has a car, hwang hyunjin doesn't like him back. and in the next instant, everything is turned upside down. nothing makes sense anymore.or: changbin gets into a car crash and hyunjin sees him in the middle of the road.





	something's different today

**Author's Note:**

> i honestly cannot believe i'm posting another fic so soon but i just got into a car crash last night and this is how i coped with it. this isn't edited at all because i felt like i had to post it as soon as i finished it. (that's why the whole school system is american―i didn't have the time or energy to convert it all over to korean, sorry.)
> 
> the title is taken from get cool by stray kids.

“See you later,” Changbin says to one of the girls from his calculus class. She returns the sentiment before she splits off in the direction of her car. The parking lot is packed, and Changbin has to shoulder his way through the school-dismissal rush just to get to his own car. He sees some people he knows, like Seungmin, a junior he had a music theory elective with last year, and Felix, another junior who followed him around like a puppy when he was a brand new freshman. He waves to both of them and they wave in reply, both too caught up in their respective friend groups to actually say hello.

Changbin also spots Jisung, one of his closer friends, sitting in the back of a pickup truck that definitely isn’t his. He’s surrounded by other soccer players and their girlfriends and Changbin isn’t good enough friends with any of them to feel comfortable actively approaching them, so he just keeps heading towards his own car. In his peripheral he catches Hyunjin, a soccer team captain and one of the only single players (not that Changbin knows that for any specific reason), throw his head back in his beautiful abrasive laugh that Changbin can hear all the way from here.

Biting at his lip, Changbin unlocks his car and throws his backpack into the back seat. His car’s a green Toyota older than he is, and he’s always loved it. It used to be his dad’s, but when Changbin started nearing license age the man gave it up for his son. Sure, it takes a hard press to the accelerator to actually accelerate and the steering wheel vibrates when he eases into the brakes, but it’s his birthday buddy. Jisung likes to poke fun at how much he loves his car, but what is there to say? He’s emotionally attached to it, regardless of whether or not the aging speakers can handle his younger friend's bass-heavy rap music.

He has to wait a bit for other cars to file out behind him before he can back out of his spot and join the line. While he waits, he watches mindlessly in one of the mirrors as Hyunjin claps a few of his teammates on the back in parting and slides into the driver’s seat of white Lexus two spots down from the group.

Changbin’s whole… deal, he supposes, with Hyunjin began three years ago. It started in PE class, of all places. Changbin wasn’t really big into physical exertion―he worked out when he got too stressed, but he preferred doing sit-ups to the point where he couldn’t laugh without it hurting and punching things until his knuckles turned red. Sprints, however? Agility ladders? Pull-ups? Absolutely not.

For Hyunjin, on the other hand, absolutely yes. That boy out-sprinted everyone and raced through the agility ladders and could do so many pull-ups Changbin would lose count. His deal with Hyunjin began as total admiration and awe, because honestly, how could it not?

It got more complicated when they shared other classes together that did not involve Hyunjin in a sleeveless t-shirt and instead in glasses and a thoughtful expression. Hyunjin was so _smart_ ―the first group project Changbin had with him sealed aforementioned deal. Changbin could probably listen to Hyunjin talk about electronegativity for hours without falling asleep. Huh. Maybe Hyunjin should teach Changbin’s chemistry class.

Either way, it all grew even _more_ complicated when Changbin got out from under his fucking rock and went to one of Jisung’s soccer games. He sat away from the student section, a little too awkward to actually join in the crowd since he didn’t really know anyone in it. But any displacement immediately faded when Changbin heard a proud _“Number five Hwang Hyunjin, junior forward”_ echo through the big field speakers.

What the announcer failed to mention was that number five Hwang Hyunjin, junior forward was also the lead scorer for the school’s team. Changbin watched with his mouth agape as Hyunjin literally tore up the other team’s defenders. He asked Jisung about the boy later, and Jisung said he’d drop dead with shock if Hyunjin wasn’t picked for team captain next year.

Now they’re seniors and Hyunjin was in fact picked for team captain. And this whole time, Changbin’s been harboring this secret crush on him.

And Changbin’s crush isn’t creepy or obsessive―it can’t be labeled as simply _infatuation_. It has actual grounds. He and Hyunjin have somehow managed to share a class every semester since freshman year, they partner together on projects because they’re exclusively the only two students who actually do work, and they say hi when they pass each other in the hallway. They just… don’t do anything _outside_ of school. Unless it was for something homework-related, Changbin’s never actively approached the other boy beyond the classrooms. And Hyunjin’s never approached him either.

So if anything, his crush is just sad and unfortunate.

But it’s not really a big deal. Hyunjin is the cool popular soccer captain―he’s friends with everyone who’s anyone and he’s constantly hanging out with this person or attending that person’s party and there’s not really any place for Changbin. That’s just the way it is.

The line moves again, and Changbin maneuvers his car out of the parking lot and onto the road. This route is muscle memory―he’s been driving to and from school since the beginning of last year and every turn and stoplight is ingrained into his brain.

Right turn out of the parking lot, stoplight at the turn for the outlet mall, continue straight by the outlets until the light for the main road. It’s a left out of there, down past various restaurants and health clinics. It’s better to take the curve in the left lane because sometimes the curb gets a little too close for comfort in the right one.

After that is another right at the gas station. Changbin pulls up on the red and waits for the cars going straight across the lane. When there’s a gap he seizes the chance and turns, leaving that kid from first period at the light. He starts accelerating in the left lane as another car going much faster begins passing in the right lane.

And that’s when it happens. He sees it out of the corner of his eye, a red Honda pulling out of a street on the right. That’s all he registers before suddenly there’s the side of a red Honda in front of him and he thinks he yells something and he slams on the brakes and he still rams into the car anyway.

The next thing he knows half of his hood is bent up in front of his view. His hands are tight around the wheel and there’s some loud scraping sound that is in no way natural.

“Fuck,” he says. Fuck.

He just got in a wreck.

“Fuck,” he says again. He can’t even explain what just happened―one second he was headed towards downtown, and the next second the front of his car is pushed up over his windshield and there’s a long spidery crack spread almost like a flower blossom across the glass in front of his head.

He leads his car into the middle turn lane. It keeps scraping until he stops and shifts into park.

Suddenly everything comes flooding back. Crash protocol, his dad called it. First step, call 911. His phone is in the passenger’s seat. He dials 911.

“This is nine-one-one, what is your emergency?” the operator says on the phone.

“I just, um, I just got in a crash. Car crash.”

“Are you hurt?”

Changbin checks himself. “No. No, I’m not hurt.”

“Okay, I’m going to redirect you to the police.”

There’s a click.

“What is your emergency?” a gruff voice asks.

Changbin repeats the information.

“What street are you on?”

Changbin doesn’t know what street he’s on. “I don’t know.” He looks around for a sign. “I’m by the library. Um―” He finds the sign, “Sejong-daero.”

“2-gil?”

“Yes. Sejong-daero 2-gil.”

Right then, he remembers he needs to make sure the other person hasn’t fled the scene. Phone still against his ear, he fumbles for the door handle and pushes it open.

“I see it. A red Honda and a green Toyota?”

“Yes,” Changbin says. “I’m the Toyota.”

“We’re on our way. The fire department are on their way as well.”

There’s another click signalling the end of the call. Changbin’s feet are a little unsteady on the ground but his eyes are focused on the road behind him, where the red Honda sits in the other side of the road. It doesn’t look that bad―there’s a sizeable dent in the driver’s side of the car, but that’s it. The driver’s door is open and the woman who must have made such a ludicrous left turn is leaning out of her seat. A man is trying the door on the dented side.

He dials his dad’s phone number next. “Hello?” his dad asks when the line picks up.

“Dad,” he says, and now he can hear the wavering in his own voice. “I got in a car crash.”

“What? Changbin, are you okay? Where are you?”

“I’m okay,” Changbin answers. His eyes stray to the side of the road he came from. A girl Changbin went to middle school with looks out of her rolled-down window with her mouth agape. Fuck, everyone at school is going to know. “I’m on Sejong-daero, across from the library.”

“Hold on, I’m going to call your mother so she can get to you. I’m stuck at work until late tonight―hey, do not apologize or admit to any fault, Changbin. Love you.”

Changbin nods before there’s another click. His mom works at one of the stores in the outlet mall, so she’s not far away.

A fire truck siren sounds a short ways down the road, and Changbin remembers he was in a car crash. The fire truck pulls up and the responders climb out, but Changbin rounds to the front of his car and nearly cries at what he sees.

The whole driver’s side is smashed. The headlight is decimated, the fender is warped against the tire, and a significant portion of the hood is crumpled down into the engine. Liquid leaks out from under the front of his car in a slowly widening pool.  Tears press at the back of his eyes. This is _his_ car.

Suddenly a familiar white Lexus in the lane Changbin came from pulls into the middle behind him. The hazards flick on and the driver’s door opens, a familiar boy climbs out, then it slams shut.

“Changbin?” Hyunjin calls. He runs over to where Changbin’s standing bonelessly in front of his car. His poor, smashed car. “Jesus! Changbin, are you alright?”

Hyunjin’s hands ghost over him, frantic and fretful but not quite touching. Changbin can’t feel anything, so he says, “I’m okay.” Hyunjin doesn’t stop and the older can’t handle how many things are going insane all at once right now, so he says a little more firmly, “I’m okay. Really. I… I’m okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

Hyunjin finally moves his attention away from Changbin to his car. A small yelp escapes his throat at the sight of it. “What happened?!”

What did happen? “A car pulled out in front of me,” Changbin answers. It’s coming back in flashes. “Just fucking _whipped_ out in front of me. What the hell―who would make a fucking left turn like that?” Anger boils up inside of him the more he thinks about it. “It obviously wasn’t safe―they raced out in front of the car beside me and I don’t know if they saw me but I―I braked so hard, I swear―it wasn’t enough―my car―it wasn’t my fault.”

“I’m sure it wasn’t,” Hyunjin assures him. “Are you sure you’re okay? Changbin, you’re shaking.”

Changbin blinks down at his hands, which are now being held by Hyunjin’s. They’re practically vibrating, his shaking is so severe. He hadn’t even noticed.

“I’m okay,” he says again.

“Hello,” a new voice says. Changbin turns to see one of the firemen. “Are either of you hurt?”

“I wasn’t in the car,” Hyunjin replies quickly. He gestures back with his head, “That’s mine. I just got here. Changbin is my… friend.”

“I’m okay,” Changbin tells the fireman.

“You’re sure?”

“I’m okay.”

A police car pulls in front of the fire truck then, lights flashing. An officer steps out and approaches the red Honda. He’s short but broad. He speaks with them briefly, then joins the fireman by Changbin and Hyunjin.

“Nobody’s hurt?” he asks.

Changbin shakes his head.

“Okay. I’m going to talk to them first then I will talk to you, okay?”

Changbin nods.

The fireman tips his head at them before returning to the fire truck. He retrieves a broom, begins sweeping all the shattered parts of Changbin’s car off the moving lanes. A few more of Changbin’s classmates drive by and he avoids their curious gazes.

“Shit,” Hyunjin mutters. He keeps looking at the older boy like he’s not positive he’s actually okay. His phone buzzes and he checks it. "Jisung wants to know if you're okay."

Fuck. The other kids at his school know and they know  _Hyunjin_ is here too and this is just terrible.

But he nods anyway so the other boy can reply to Jisung. A low wind seeping through his hoodie distracts him, and he shivers. Ugh, the one day he chose to wear a short sleeve shirt under his hoodie is the day he ends up standing in the middle of the road on the coldest November afternoon so far. Figures.

“Are you cold?” Hyunjin asks.

“Yeah,” Changbin replies, teeth starting up a steady chatter.

“Hold on.” The younger returns to his car, pops the trunk, and comes back with a thick plaid blanket. He wraps it around Changbin’s shoulders, snuggling it tight around the back of his neck. It falls like drapery around the older’s smaller body. When he reaches up to hold the sections of it by his chest, a sharp pain stings on his wrist. He hisses at it, then just stares at what he sees. A little cut, thin but rising over his skin.

“My watch cut me,” he states.

Hyunjin takes his wrist between his hands to check it himself. The touches send a new, confusing rush of adrenaline through Changbin’s already trembling body.

Hyunjin huffs out a half-laugh. Changbin knows why―the older just got into a fucking _car wreck_ and his only injury is a little cut from his wristwatch.

“Did you call your parents yet?”

Changbin tries to remember. “Yeah, I called my dad. My mom’s on her way.”

“Good,” Hyunjin says. He stays close but not too close, protective but not overbearing. Normally, Changbin would be freaking out at the fact that _Hyunjin is here and Hyunjin is really pretty_ but honestly all he can really think about is how he just got in a wreck. He, Seo Changbin, responsible driver Seo Changbin, was-driving-with-two-hands-like-his-mom-always-tells-him-to Seo Changbin, just got into a wreck.

His phone starts buzzing in his hoodie pocket and he scrambles to get it out without releasing his shaky grip on the blanket. “Hi, Mom,” he says.

“Bin-ah!” she frets on the other end. “Are you alright?”

“I’m okay,” he says.

“Where are you?”

“Sejong-daero,” he replies. “Like, where you’d turn left.”

“What? I’m at the light, but shouldn’t I turn right?”

“Oh,” Changbin says. “Yes, like you’re going home. Turn right. There’s a fire truck.”

“I see it,” she replies. “Oh, Changbin. I love you so much, I’ll be right there.”

Click.

His mom’s gray minivan pulls over into the middle lane behind the fire truck. Cars still drive in either direction around them, but Changbin doesn’t even see them anymore.

“Oh, my baby!” his mom worries over him. “You’re sure you’re not hurt? Oh god, what happened? Where’d you get that blanket?” She finally seems to see the boy standing beside her son. “Hyunjin?”

“Hi, Mrs. Seo,” Hyunjin greets with a half-bow. “That’s my blanket―Changbin was cold.”

“Thank you,” Mrs. Seo says, though she doesn’t sound totally sure. She knows the boy because Jisung is practically her second son and she’s dedicated many of her evenings to attending high school soccer games and learning all the players’ names. Hyunjin is certainly one of the names she remembered, and Changbin honestly lost track of how many times she’s said to him with that sly tone _Oh that Hwang Hyunjin boy, he’s good looking, don’t you think?_

“Were you in the car with Changbin?” she asks Hyunjin.

“Oh, no,” the boy replies. “I just saw the crash after leaving the school and Changbin was by himself, standing in the middle of the road―I’m just trying to help.”

“I know,” Mrs. Seo says gently. This time, surer, “Thank you.”

Hyunjin blushes faintly in response, but Changbin misses it because he’s watching the woman from the red Honda look over to see what the police officer wrote on his little notepad. If she tries to claim it’s not her fault, Changbin’s going to throw fucking hands.

“Sweetie, has the policeman talked to you yet?”

“Not about what happened. He’s over there right now.”

“Okay. I’m going to call the insurance company. Hyunjin, you’ll stay with him when he talks to the officer?”

She rounds the car and her face crumples at the damage. Some part of Changbin clings to the hope that it can be fixed. That his car won’t be a victim of mindless murder.

“Hello,” the policeman says, and Changbin jerks his attention to him. Hyunjin presses a little closer to the older boy’s side.

“Can you tell me what happened?”

Changbin tells him everything he can remember. Accelerating to the speed limit, noticing the red Honda, the other car blocking his line of sight. Suddenly seeing the red Honda in front of him. Slamming on the breaks, hitting it anyway. It wasn’t his fault.

“Was the woman driving?”

Was she? Changbin had assumed so. “I think so,” he says. “But I don’t know.” All he can see when he thinks back to it is the side of a red Honda.

The officer nods and adds a few lines of notes to his pad of paper.

“My mom’s here,” Changbin tells him. “She’s on the phone with the insurance company.”

This time the officer smiles at him. “Thanks for letting me know.”

“Hey, you sure you’re okay?” Hyunjin asks when the officer’s left. He fixes the blanket around the shorter’s shoulders, pulling it tighter against him again. “You seem out of it.”

“I’m just shocked, I guess,” Changbin confesses. “I crashed my _car_.”

“Your birthday buddy,” Hyunjin says with a low chuckle. Changbin startles at his words―he can’t recall ever talking about his car in front of the other before. He’s not even sure when it would have come up. But almost more surprisingly, Hyunjin remembered him talking about it.

“It used to be my dad’s.”

“Hey, it’s okay. He’s not going to blame you for it.”

Hyunjin’s never met his dad before, but he’s right. His dad would never blame him for it, even if it _was_ his fault.

Tears well up in his eyes anyway. Hyunjin makes a small noise and crosses the space he’d been leaving between them. He pulls Changbin into his chest, rubs a slow hand over his back. “It’s okay, it’s okay.”

The next two hours pass in excruciating detail. A fireman slowly drives his still-running car to the library parking lot. Changbin talks to the police officer again, shows him his license, his car registration, his insurance card. The school rush dies out. They get walked through the insurance exchange form. Case report. No tickets today, apparently. His mom says the tow truck’s on the way. Night falls. Hyunjin stays by his side the whole time, only stepping a couple feet away when his own mother calls to ask why he’s not home yet.

“Hey,” Changbin’s mom says quietly. “We’re going to tow your car to a shop, so we have to get everything out of it.”

Her son doesn’t take his eyes off his birthday buddy and its half-smashed face.

As it turns out, Changbin’s car needed some serious cleaning. There’s so much _shit_ stuffed everywhere. He finds two little complimentary dentist pack things under his seat, toothbrushes and toothpaste and all. Hyunjin finds a biology test from their freshman year under the passenger’s seat―“Damn, Changbin. One hundred and two percent? You’re basically God. That class kicked my ass.”

Changbin flushes and snatches the test out of Hyunjin’s hands before he can say anything else.

Hyunjin also finds his mini-binder of CDs and flips through each one. Changbin sees them all in his mind―Ariana Grande’s new album, a compilation of his dad’s favorite songs (most of which are questionable early 2000s hits), the original _Phantom of the Opera_ soundtrack. He cringes. Hyunjin stops at one. “3racha?”

“Oh,” Changbin says. That’s one of the less painful ones, yet still a little strange. Not many people know 3racha. “Yeah.”

“How’d you get that on CD? I thought all their music was just on YouTube.”

The older busies himself with extracting two full plastic water bottles from under his seat. “I illegally ripped them off mp3 files?”

“Shit,” Hyunjin says with a low whistle. “I might have to get a copy of this. My family gets mad at me for running the data up on YouTube.”

It’s not until they’re done that Changbin sighs and takes one last look at his car. The ugly marring is so traumatizing he’s having trouble remembering what it looked like two hours ago in the student parking lot.

“Come on,” Hyunjin murmurs beside him. “The tow truck is here.”

The older distracts himself by looking at Hyunjin. They’ve been outside in the cold for hours, but Hyunjin is still just in his soccer team hoodie and a pair of ripped jeans. His hair’s a little rustled from the wind. Changbin’s had his blanket wrapped around him the whole time, using it to shield himself from the cold and the pain. Hyunjin just stands there, suddenly looking sort of out of place, and that’s when Changbin realizes he probably wants to go home.

“Oh,” he says dumbly, “here.” He removes the blanket from his shoulders and immediately shivers as the temperature hits him. He holds it out for the other boy.

“No, it’s okay,” Hyunjin says with a smile. “Keep it for now. You can give it back to me some other time.”

 _Some other time._ An excuse to see Hyunjin again, but for a reason besides schoolwork―he’ll take it.

“Thank you for staying with me,” he says. “You didn’t have to.”

“I know I didn’t.” Hyunjin’s smile is soft and sweet. “But I could never leave you all alone.”

Changbin is trying to decide the best way to respond to that when his mom approaches the pair. “Thanks, Hyunjin-ah,” she says. Something familiar passes over her face―an idea, Changbin recognizes, and most of the time hers are not good. “There’s a change of plans―we’re actually going to take the Toyota back to our house. Would you want to come over for a while, Hyunjin? We can feed you in return for all your help.”

Changbin almost chokes. What the fuck?! What is she thinking? Then she shoots him a side grin―he knows _exactly_ what’s going through her head. _Oh that Hwang Hyunjin boy, he’s good looking, don’t you think?_

“That would be great,” Hyunjin says. He catches the older boy’s expression and quickly adds, “Uh, if Changbin’s okay with it.”

“Yeah,” the shorter manages.

The tow truck follows Changbin’s mom’s gray minivan and Hyunjin follows it. The trip home is spent in icy silence directed from son towards mother. How _dare_ she invite Hyunjin over? Changbin just got into a _car crash_ (a car crash, a real actual car crash) and she somehow thinks he’s going to be able to survive this on top of everything else?

His car is unloaded at the bottom of their driveway. Changbin runs up to the garage and returns with a large brown tarp to protect it from water damage (the forecast calls for rain tonight). He might shed another tear or two as he and Hyunjin drag the tarp over its scarred face.

Dinner is chaotic. Not in reality, but in Changbin’s head―his car is sitting at the bottom of the driveway and Hyunjin is sitting on the barstool beside him and the microwave keeps beeping to let them know the leftovers are warm. His mom can’t seem to stop talking, but all Changbin can see in his mind’s eye is the side of that red Honda, not there and then there. _I’m not worried about you,_ his dad had said one time after Changbin told him very seriously that he promised to not get in any wrecks. _It’s everyone else on the road._

“Hey,” comes Hyunjin’s voice. He’s whispering, taking advantage of the small reprieve Mrs. Seo granted them so she could find an extra packet of rice in the garage. “What are you thinking about?”

“Nothing,” Changbin replies automatically. Hyunjin’s expression doesn’t waver. “Just… I don’t know how it happened. It shouldn’t have happened. I… I turned right on that red light. If I had just waited for the green…”

“Hey,” the younger says again, this time in warning. “Don’t think like that. What happened, happened. It wasn’t your fault. You can’t beat yourself up about that, okay?”

Changbin sighs. “Yeah.” He knows Hyunjin’s right. “Yeah, okay.”

They end up on the couch watching _Jurassic Park_ , one of Changbin’s favorite movies. He gets totally lost it it, thankfully. He likes looking at the animated dinosaurs that don’t look animated at all. They’re so realistic he can trick himself into believing they’re not special effects.

He and Hyunjin are each wrapped in their respective blankets (Changbin in the one Hyunjin gave him), closer than Changbin would have expected. It’s a little hot but it’s comfortable, the heat soothing and pleasant. Far better than the sharp cold of the evening.

Hyunjin also loves _Jurassic Park_ , though he’s only seen the movie once. He read both of the books however, which surprises Changbin to learn―the first one is his favorite book of all time. Turns out they do actually have other things besides school in common. Who would’ve guessed Hyunjin was a closeted nerd, both for underground rapper groups and dinosaurs?

At nine-thirty, Hyunjin has to leave. It’s a weird time but suddenly Changbin sees the side of the red Honda again and it’s gone as quickly as it appeared. The crash wasn’t even nearly as bad as it could’ve been, yet he's still so shook up he can’t even properly put it into words. He was in a car wreck. There’s something―he can’t put his finger on what―that feels very wrong about that statement. Maybe it’s that car wrecks happen all the time, but it’s difficult to comprehend that they _actually happen_ until you get into one yourself.

“Thank you, for everything,” Changbin says out on the porch. It’s absolutely frigid but he’s still got Hyunjin’s blanket and big thick socks on his feet.

“Of course,” Hyunjin replies. “I…” He chews on his lip before continuing. “Changbin, I really, um, care about you. Like, when I saw you on the road, I didn’t even hesitate stopping to see if you were okay. I don’t know what it is―I just… I feel like I see you everywhere. And I’ve been trying to find a reason to talk to you and _obviously_ a car wreck isn’t the chance I was looking for, but―”

The pseudo-confession is weird as hell and sending blood rushing into Changbin’s cheeks, but he twists out a smile to cover it all up. This is fine, he’s fine, everything is fine.

“I guess what I’m actually trying to do is ask you out. On a date. I’m just not good with words.”

Changbin stares. A date. Date.

Fucking hell, a traumatizing car wreck and a proposition for a date with his crush all in one night. Seo Changbin, eighteen years old, died of instant heart failure due to shock.

In his silence, Hyunjin visibly shivers. He’s still just in his hoodie, knees red through the holes in his jeans and black hair tousled from the wind. He’s beautiful.

“Okay,” Changbin says.

Hyunjin eyes him. “‘Okay’?”

“Yes,” the older corrects. “Yes, I’ll go on a date with you.”

“Yeah?” This time Hyunjin sounds relieved.

“Yeah,” Changbin confirms. A smile breaks out over Hyunjin’s face, all wide and bright and overwhelming.

“Are you busy Saturday?” When Changbin shakes his head _no,_  the younger grins. “I’ll see you then. I don’t know where we’ll go but I’ve been thinking about some places and I’ll figure something out.” And if _that_ doesn’t send the shorter reeling―Hyunjin had already been planning a date with him? Before Changbin found himself stranded in the middle of the road with his car destroyed and body shaking, Hyunjin had been contemplating possible date spots with him?

Facetiously, Hyunjin adds, “Don’t worry, I’ll drive.”

Just like that, Changbin’s shock breaks like water against rocks. “Hey!” he exclaims, half-joking. “Too soon!”

Hyunjin laughs, that gorgeous abrasive laugh Changbin likes far too much. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry. But I’ll pick you up on Saturday? Five o’clock?”

“Works for me,” Changbin says before cringing when he hears the way that sounds. _Works for me?_ Really? He's so  _awkward_.

But Hyunjin doesn’t seem to mind. “It’s a date then,” he says happily. “Hey, I’m glad you’re okay. Please don’t ever be in danger like that again.” Then he does something truly crazy―he darts down and presses a fleeting, infinite kiss against one of Changbin’s icicle cheeks. Before the older can react, he’s backing up and waving goodbye. “I’ll see you tomorrow at school!”

Changbin waves dumbfoundedly as Hyunjin’s white Lexus turns out of the Seo driveway. He stands on the porch and stares at the place it disappeared down the road for minutes afterward, trying to make sense of everything that just happened.

One moment, the whole world was the way it had always been. Changbin drove his favorite car like he had for two years and he pined after Hyunjin like he’d been doing for three years. Then, just in a split second, his car was totaled and Hyunjin was asking him on a date.

What the _fuck_? He gives up trying to sort through it all because it just makes his head hurt. Lotte World, who? _Today_ has been the wildest roller coaster Changbin has ever been on in his life.

He falls asleep with a goodnight text from Hyunjin and the plaid blanket still wrapped around his shoulders and his totaled car parked at the end of the driveway. For the first few moments when he wakes up the next morning, he doesn’t remember. Then it all comes flooding back and he lays there just staring at his ceiling for a good while before he runs an unsteady hand over his face.

Somehow, yesterday wasn’t some crazed fever dream. Somehow, his car, the blanket, Hwang Hyunjin―it all happened. He has no idea what today will hold, but he knows that somehow, it’s all going to be different.

**Author's Note:**

> this fic basically wrote itself and i'm sorry if any of it is choppy or difficult to follow... i will likely go back soon and edit this so it's better.
> 
> also that street name is just some random one in seoul lol
> 
> thank you for reading ♡


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